PEALE'S MUSEUM, ETC.

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mon however. The physical man was prostrate.The flesh was weak, and the spirit also.

At Peale's Museum formed an acquaintance with two or three individuals of the serpentine species, such as the Anaconda, the Boa Constrictor, and took a seat within the shell of a Sycamore tree, big enough to contain a score of humanities. At the American was interested in the examination of curiosities upon curiosities, too numerous to mention, and there witnessed the astonishing powers of the Hydro-oxygen Microscope, magnifying the skeleton larvæ of the Gnat and the Hydrophilus or waterDevil, which devours every day six or eight times its weight of insects, to two million and a half tiines their natural size, and thereby exhibiting to view their internal structure-muscles, organs, &c.

Washington Square, with its spacious and unique marble edifice or College-The Park, with its public buildings, and rural aspect in the heart of the city the Battery at its Southern extremity, with its smoothed and winding walks, and its seats for the weary or contemplative -these are the pride of New York and an attraction to strangers.

its fine ranges of trees,

Crossed by the ferry to Brooklyn and Hoboken and have much to say in praise of both, especially the latter. It is one and a half

and the ferriage but six cents.

miles to Hoboken,

Purchased a juve

nile ride upon a circular fail-way for twelve cents, and walked through the fine avenue of trees,stretch

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HOBOKEN

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PHILADELPHIA.

hing for miles, and forming a most romantic promenade along the banks of the Hudson, as far as Turtle Grove. The weather not proving good my friend and my self were obliged to return, much to our disappointinent, without visiting the tomb of the immortal Hamilton. We saw grape vines on our way, the most astonishing for size- -one seveaty feet in length, and covering the frame of a building thirty-five feet in breadth, for which it answered as a perfect shelter or roof, and another eighty feet in length, forty in breadth, and eleven in circumference at the trunk. This was the Burgundy grape.

Next took passage for Philadelphia, where I tarried another week and for the same purpose.-Went as every body does, to the Fair Mount water works and the Mint where they cut 120 half dollars in a minute and the mint-hopper throws out 50 at once all stamped and ready for use. I was surprised to learn from the superintendent that out of a thousand persons who had been employed in the different branches of the business, only two had been dishonest and purloined money. Went also to the Navy Yard to see the largest ship in the Union, and and a big one it is indeed.

Was favored by kind friends with a trip to Pratt's Garden, a little out of the city, which is perfect in its way. Among other plants and trees, I remember the Yew, Banyan, Cypress, Mocha Coffee, Rododendron, Arbor Vitæ, Juniper, Tulip tree, Wax

plant, Citron, Pine-apple, &c. I gave a passing look at the famous Penitentiary covering so many acres --- thought the Arcade containing Peale's unrivalled Museum, and the Chesnut-street Theatre buildings of no common beauty, and admired much, very much the simple architecture of the United States Bank as well as the rich and superb facade of the Exchange. Chesnut St. is a fine street, though not for a moment to be compared with Broadway. The market in Philadelphia however, is above comparison with any thing of the kind in New York. The former place moreover has the advantage of an abundant supply of good water, in which the latter is sadly deficient. Philadelphia, on the whole, is too much a city of straight lines for my taste. Give me a little more up and down, round-about and twist-about. There is nothing so pleasant as to be lost once in a while in a large city.

-The Philadelphians and New Yorkers are as strikingly different as their cities. Of this and their peculiarities every body is aware.

Baltimore is a fine city. I do not mean that it is more so than those already noticed, but it is more to the mind of a Bostonian, or one who like myself has walked its streets for years, than any other city I have seen. It contains nearly the same number of inhabitants, is just about as irregular, and, in fact, is much like Boston. Baltimore and also Philadelphia, as respects the syren charms of woman, are said to surpass other cities. The chief objects

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A NOBLE FOREST.

of interest to a stranger in Baltimore, are Washington's Monument, the Battle Monument, the Penitentiary and Prison, the Water Works, and the City Spring. Within the enclosure of the latter is a monument erected to some colonel who fell in a skirmish in 1814. It is a small square shaft flanked by marble cannon, with four cannon shot on the summit, and upon these a bomb-shell. In the vicinity of Washington's Monument, truly worthy of the Father of his Country, is an extensive forest of ancient oaks. It is most truly picturesque. You cannot enter it with careless steps. You are awed at once by the grandeur of the old forest brethren, standing side by side,and lifting their crowned heads towards the heavens. Within this sacred domain the flame of devotion kindles in the soul without effort - unconsciously. One feels the truth of the following beautiful passage: 'In the woods is perpetual youth; within the plantations of God a decoTum and sanctity reign; a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.'

Among other objects of interest, are the Unitarian Church, which is hardly equalled for imposing ef fect in the Union,---St Mary's College, which by the by is of indifferent appearance --- the Exchange, U. S. Bank, and Custom House (one building) and in particular the Catholic Cathedral. On the different sides of the last, as you approach, your attention is attracted by the following passages of

CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL.

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Scripture: 'Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.' (Levit. xix. 30.)

Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.' (2 Chron. vii. 15.) 'We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.' (1 Corin. i. 23.) It is hardly necessary to say that passages like these, inscribed in letters legible at considerable distance, produce a very solemn effect upon the mind. As you enter the Cathedral a marble figure on one side greets your eye, pointing toward the Holy of Holies with this inscription, which seems to sound in your ears 'Adore the Lord in his Holy Temple;' and another on the opposite side with the following:- 'He that shall violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy.' Back of the pulpit you read Come ye therefore and teach all nations.' Many valuable paintings hang about the walls, all of which are described with great particularity by a female attendant. I was at the Cathedral on a week-day, and afterwards on the Sabbath. On my first visit I had a somewhat singular conversation with the pious Catholic woman, who acted the part of a cicerone. She discoursed with incredible fluency about the altar, the paintings, the calendar of saints, the sacrifice of the mass, a belief of which she declared essential to salvation, transubsantiation, the history of the church, &c. I told her, when the current of her thoughts checked a little, that I did not know what she meant